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ALBUQUERQUE- David Chipman “Chip” Venie, one of the best criminal defense attorneys in New Mexico, won two more major cases at trial recently: one aggravated DWI and one aggravated battery with a deadly weapon. Criminal defense attorney Chip Venie was able to improve his overall trial record to an astounding 49-6 (16-1 in New Mexico). State v. Holt, D-905-CR-2011- 00640, was an aggravated battery with a deadly weapon case in Clovis, New Mexico at the District Court at 701 N. Main Street, before Judge Ted Hartley. The defendant, R. Holt, was accused of bashing a man’s head in with a...

Could Connecticut and New Mexico going from "Obama" to "Lean Obama" become a sign of things to come? What has happened in a blue New England state may hopefully be a new trend going into November. Maybe Connecticut turning purple is primarily due to the number of "Wall Street" residents living there and knowing what will happen to their fortunes or incomes if Obama is re-elected. Hopefully the trend will continue in September when New Jersey, Nevada and Minnesota turn purple giving Obama more states to worry about and less money and time to campaign in.

With money laundering conspiracy charges dismissed by the judge beforehand, verdicts were returned yesterday in the U.S. District Court in Las Cruces, N.M., on remaining charges against members of the Reese family, Deming gun dealers who have, for the past year, been fighting charges of knowingly selling to straw purchasers providing guns to Mexican cartels. Pronounced “not guilty” on the most damning charges, three family members still face a daunting legal threat. “All four family members, Remington, Terri, Rick Reese and Ryin Reese, were acquitted of one count of conspiracy and 17 counts of gun smuggling,” KVIA ABC7 reported, noting...

Clearly, it was jolting news the New Mexico Legislature's Water and Natural Resources Committee wasn't prepared for. During Monday's committee meeting, in the Barbara Hubbard Room at the Pan American Center Annex, lawyers representing the New Mexico Office of the State Engineer, Elephant Butte Irrigation District, and the city of Las Cruces, told the committee that a state Water Court hearing will be at 9 a.m. Wednesday, at the Third Judicial Court Complex, 201 E. Picacho Ave., and the future management of state's water supply could hang in the balance of the hearing's outcome. "Why hasn't this been front-page news?"...

After hearing motions to dismiss all counts against the Reeses on a previous day, the Judge made it clear during a hearing and other times when the jury was not in the courtroom that he was having trouble with Counts 29 & 30, Monday Laundering Conspiracy against all four defendants. This morning, prior to the Jury coming in, Judge Brack granted a Rule 29 Motion to Dismiss the Money Laundering Charges. The Judge stated there was INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE, NO AGREEMENT, and NO EVIDENCE. The charges against each individual separately that have gone to the Jury this afternoon are: COUNT 1...

Monday, cross-examination of the government’s star witness, Mexican cartel Jose Roman, who functioned in an organizational capacity. Roman started his career in crime at the age of 17 running illegal aliens from the border up towards Deming. He moved up to drug smuggling and later moved further up into gun & ammo running. Although he is now 31 years old, he claims he wasn’t paid any money for his years of criminal activity. Roman testified on the contrary, the cartel stole his money — money he was paid by the government to take care of his father in Deming (some...

The prosecution has continued presenting their case for the past two days and an enormous amount of evidence was put forth against the Reeses and scored points along the way. However, the defense was relentless in exposing a number of flaws in the case. The below is just a sample of the types of things learned . Cross-examination of the cooperating defendant, Jose Roman continued. The main points learned: * He didn’t remember stealing a 42″ screen TV from Walmart, and didn’t inform the agents about this, contrary to his plea agreement to admit to every crime and to testify...

On Tuesday during trial there were some tense and uneasy moments when the prosecution brought a number of weapons and ammo into the court room. Weapons themselves aren’t a problem, and the ammo wasn’t either. The problem occured when the prosecution started picking up AK-47s and AR-15s and swinging them around the room pointed randomly at people – unintentionally. The careless handling of the weapons caught the eye of the Judge who stopped the prosecution and made sure the weapons were unloaded and secured. The prosecution stopped in place and showed him whatever methods they had used to secure the...

Additional information from testimony of Mrs. Roman. Roman’s wife has been with Roman for approximately 13 years – nearly the entire time spanning Roman’s criminal career from his teen years. Although she testified about her role in helping him with the gun smuggling and marijuana cases, she denies any knowledge that Roman was also transporting illegal aliens. She was unable to recall telling agents that her husband smuggled marijuana for 8 years. She claims she was not paid for her work smuggling marijuana, but her husband was. She claimed after expenses they had very little profit left. She testified they...

ATF Special Agent Byrd is assigned to the US Consulate in Juarez, Mexico. S/A Byrd explained the processes involved in matching guns recovered in Mexico to guns sold/purchased in the United States. He explained how out of some 50-75 weapons recovered per year, only about 10% have had their serial numbers scratched off. He testified that so far, 5 guns originally purchased at New Deal have turned up in Mexico, the most recent one in October 2011, several months after the Reeses were arrested. (Note: Cartel organizer Jose Roman and his wife have admitted they illegally smuggled these weapons out...

Special Agent Jose Martinez, working for DHS-HSI for the past 6 years, was referred the Penny Torres case by his group supervisor after Allen Bass obtained infrom from Terri Reese to check her out. ATF received the same information. HSI used a variety of techniques to investigate Penny Torres including surveillance.. He worked with ATF S/A Valles and opened an investigation on 09/07/2010. Agent Martinez stated he and ATF S/A Valles went to New Deal to talk to Terri about Penny Torres’ purchases. He stated that Terri was very busy in the store, however seemed nice and personable. She was...

At the end of a long day of testimony, Roger Morris of Luna County, Customs and Border Patrol 24.5 years and 3 years on the Border Task Force, was sworn in and testified under oath. Under direct examination: Roger Morris testified he has been at New Deal a number of times since they opened the store some 15-18 years ago. He testified he went there 7-8 times a year and found all of the Reeses friendly. Roger Morris testified in August of 2011, he ran into Rick and Terri Reese at the John Deere Parts House in Deming, when he...

Roger Morris returned on July 26, to continue testifying against the Reese family. The Prosecutor resumed questioning Mr. Morris under redirect and asked Roger Morris if the meeting at the John Deere store was set up. Roger Morris testified no, that he was in the store on personal business and was off duty The Prosecutor asked if he had social invitations from the Reeses before and he stated no. Then Roger Morris testified that Rick invited him to __ __ _ _______ __ ______ ____ ___ _____ ______ ___ ____ ____. The defense objected and all attorneys approached the bench....

[Note: often the prosecutors have not been asking witnesses to spell their names, and the exact names of witnesses are not clear to the public. That is the case with this agent. He is called Frye in this update, however, his real name could be something phonetically similar. Some of the charges against the Reeses include two counts of Money Laundering Conspiracy.] Special Agent Joshua Frye (phonetic), testified he was been with HSI since 2004. He is currently assigned in El Paso in asset forfeiture from criminal cases involving money laundering, and other criminal activity. S/A Pride has a Bachelor...

Bruce Charles Schwindler (sp?), works with the Department of State, and is the Director of Treaty Control (or something close to that). The US President has the right to regulate the exportation of certain items. The Department of State enforces the Arms Export Control Act. Mr. Schwindler (sp?) testified at length about his long history in the military and various government agencies. He is an expert on proper licensing of firearms exportation to other countries, including “Mejico”. His department issues over 18,000 applications to export annually. 95% of the applications submitted to export weapons are granted, including exports to “Mejico”....

DHS – HSI S/A Hector Fuerta (spelling not clear) has been with HSI for 3 years in Deming. He was involved in the New Deal sting operation on June 15, 2011. His task was to provide back-up cover inside the store for Cooperating Defendant (“C/D”) Jose Roman and the Undercover (“U/C”) agent for their safety. He stated he entered the store around 1:25 – 1:30 and stated he was inside the store 10-15 minutes. He observed the C/D and U/C talking to Ryin. Terri approached him to see if he needed any assistance, but stated her attention was not on...

Carlos Valles (sp?), a Special Agent with the BATFE (“ATF”) out of Las Cruces was the lead investigator in the ATF portion of the case, but not the overall case agent for the entire case. (HSI Special Agent Eddie Pacheco was the lead case agent.) S/A Valles has a Bachelors in Criminal Justice and is fluent in Spanish. His duties are to enforce violations of federal firearms laws. S/A Valles explained that ATF is divided into two sections, the criminal enforcement side (the side he works for), and the regulations compliance section. The two sides work together at times. Carlos...

After Agent Valles reviewed his case file, Valles stated that a tape of the phone call was in his file, however, he had made a report, not a transcript. Defense Attorney Brad Hall stood up and announce his office had made the transcript. Attorney Bowles continued with his cross-examination and asked him again if he recalled that Penny Torres did not want to be arrested. He stated it wasn’t in his report, however, he recalls the conversation, and claimed that if they had wanted to arrest her, they would have already. She wasn’t arrested. During questioning, it was learned that...

ATF S/A Valles was questioned again by the prosecutor. He was shows a booklet of the Federal Firearms Reference Guide for FFLs, and called it the Bible for FFLs, since it includes al the laws and regulations on firearms. A series of questions followed which were objected to and sustained. It was a bit confusing, but it seemed the line of questions that could be answered resulted in learning from Valles that the FFRG lists specific requirements for FFLs to follow, the compliance time, and ramnifications of non-compliance, including filling out and voiding a 4473. Under cross, Defense Attorney Hall...

OOPS! S/A Valles came back the next morning (Friday 7/29) and continued to testify. S/A Valles agreed the 2005 edition for the FFRG was the book in force during 2010, and there is a section about the firearms transaction record (4473). The requirements include some guidance on due diligence by the seller, verification of the buyer’s ID, examination of the ID of the buyer, must be legally in the US. On questioning Valles admitted Reeses reviewed a valid ID (Penny Torres) and even the false indentification (provided by the agents), and examined same. The book also explains the difference between...